6/2 and 6/30 card show reports: summertime shows

If there's anything I've been wanting to clear off of my card desk for the past month, it's the stuff I picked up at both shows I attended last month. So let's look at both of those in today's post!

Both of these were Taylor Town monthly shows but both occurred in June because of calendar weirdness as the second was actually part of the first weekend in July. #1 was Friday, the 2nd, and I came home with one of the bigger piles of cards from that place in quite a while. My notes indicate the following:

• 180 dime cards = $18
• 40 $1 cards = $40
• 10 $2 cards = $20
• 1 $5 card = $5

That's an $83 total and my dude quoted me $75, so I was quite happy. I went nuts in the dime boxes largely because I found large groups of serial numbered cards that would make for excellent trade bait here or on TCDb. Enjoy these next SEVEN scans worth of stuff, most of which is still available (please just ask or find me on TCDb!):

Baseball: Cain /499 and /250; Ruan /2001; Sizemore/Garko /299; Sizemore /150; Billingsley auto /150

Favres: I still have 04, 31(x2), 82(x2), 93, and 403 still available

SN football 1/4: Tatum Bell /599, LeGarrette Blount /2012; Bowe /949; Canidate /2500 and /1500; Claiborne /500; Davis /799; Tim Dwight /750; Fauria /250

SN football 2/4: Franklin /249; Griffin /500; Hass /499; Jackson /250, Johnson /299; Keller /999; McCauley and Parker /500 (Moore no longer available)

SN football 3/4: Rhodes /175; Tate /499; Taylor /750; Thomas /400; Turbin /462; White /2500; Young /250

SN football 4/4: Carlson /499; Davis /1250; Robinson/Anderson /1000; Luke Staley no longer available; Williamson /250

Football hits: I scored some very nice ones considering the low prices! Coutee /99; Olson /999; Ito Smith /25; Colston/Cotchery no longer available; Latimer /399; Nelson /149

Here are my dime pickups, which managed to hit six different PCs. Not bad for $0.10 each, right?

The rest of my baseball pickups came from the $2 and $5 boxes (I believe none were $1, can't remember). Can't go wrong with the former blog namesake especially when it's a Detroit uni card numbered /10! Maddux's UD insert is of the numbered variety, "limited" to 4000 copies, and of course it gives me the warm fuzzies from the era when inserts were still good. It may be logoless but I didn't think I should be picky about landing my first Casey Mize auto for just $5. And how about a dual relic of HOF P Jack Morris and a guy repping the team he beat in 1984 for Detroit's most recent World Series? All day, every day, friends.

In terms of football the dime box treated me well with a new insert of Rashan Gary and a pair of Nico Collins rookie-related offerings, and then for a buck or two I also added a Collins parallel /249 from Certified.

Considering I came home with 231 cards, even after showing off unclaimed trade bait and my keepers, that means a LOT of this stuff went out in trade packages, which is usually my #1 goal for stuff I find at shows, so this one worked out great.

When I headed back on Friday, the 30th for the July version, it was a different experience, but still a very productive one. I still came back with some excellent cards, but I spent much less time because the dime boxes didn't look to hold anything that piqued my interest.

Instead, my breakdown looked like this:

• 15 from the $2/each or 3/$5 = $25
• 15 from the $5/each or 5/$20 = $60

That's a total of $85 that even my liberal arts brain can figure out.

The trade bait group is much smaller but the quality's quite good:

Wright is /299; Tannehill is /180; Bowe/Meachem/Davis is /175

Again, please claim those if you're interested in any and we'll work something out.

My own haul also stepped up in quality from that of the earlier show since everything was $2 or $5:

Ex-Wolverine Nwogu looks extra good on a parallel that matches his team's jersey, and this Heritage Minors insert is limited to 99 copies. I probably wouldn't have minded spending more than the $2 it took to score my third auto (to go with an auto/plate) of Jesse Franklin rocking the Maize & Blue. BInge may not be with the Tigers OR Wolverines anymore but $2 (less after the discount) was fair enough to snag a jersey of his for my second relic (to go with one autograph) of the former Michigan Baseball special assistant.

Meanwhile, you won't see me drop this much on basketball very often, but I found a trio of very nice former UM BB stars in the $5 box. I already had one signature of Iggy but that's my first auto/relic (also numbered /199) and is likely my new best card of the Lithuanian-by-way-of-Canada cager. THJ's signature may not be the most legible but it's also not a lazy couple of dashes, plus he adds his jersey number. I wish the foil-y card (SN99) scanned better, but my fifth auto of the younger Hardaway looks great in person. And I don't know what to make of Juwan Howard's coaching at Michigan, which seemed to start on a great note and has since been less than great, but I still wasn't going to pass up an autograph of one of the more successful Wolverines in the NBA for just my second signature of his.

I may have inadvertently saved the best for last with the football offerings. Another Braylon relic (/115) is nothing to turn up my nose at, and that makes 71 such cards of his 93 hits. But my favorite pickup of the day is Nico Collins' 2022 Panini Elements autograph. These cards are printed on metal and thicker than printing plates, and I've become a big fan of such cards because the color really pops on the material. I'm also excited that it's a new autograph of a potential future star who may finally get a QB throwing to him that isn't a compete and total bum. I now have three cards featuring his signature.

While I'm at it since I obviously think it looks so cool, check out the back:

Again, the print quality on the metal is great, but I also couldn't help but be drawn to the printed out serial numbering in the upper-left corner. It makes sense since the usual stamping wouldn't work, but since this is my first card of this type that wasn't a printing plate, it surprised me for a minute. Long story short, great card, great deal!

That covers the June and July shows in Taylor, and now I get to decide what I want to show off next.